"Mikasa! Mr. Hannes! You're back!"
On a large wooden boat anchored near the inner wall, Eren Yeager and Carla stood on the deck.
Beside them was a blond boy Armin Arlert.
Seeing Hannes flying in with his ODM gear and landing safely with Mikasa,
Eren shouted with relief.
"I brought her back! I need to return and help other civilians!"
Hannes set the blank-faced Mikasa into Carla's arms, then activated his ODM gear to fly back toward Shiganshina.
But before he got far
"HANNES! There should've been another boy!
Did you not bring him!?"
Carla's panicked voice echoed across the water.
"No boy, only Mikasa!"
Hannes shouted back as he disappeared into the distance.
Eren froze.
"No boy? How can that be…?"
Armin turned toward him.
"You mean the boy who saved your mom…?"
"Mikasa!"
Carla shook Mikasa's shoulders anxiously.
"What happened?
You were with him where is he!?"
"…He… he…"
Mikasa lifted her head.
Her expression was empty like she wasn't fully there.
Seeing her like this, Eren panicked even more.
"Mikasa! What happened to him!? Answer Mom's question!
Weren't you two distracting the Titans together!?"
The sharp shout jolted Mikasa.
Her lips trembled.
Her eyes reddened.
And tears tears Mikasa rarely showed gathered.
"He… to save me… he was… crushed… under the church debris…
He's already… already…"
"You're talking weird! Just say it clearly!"
Eren grabbed her shoulders, voice cracking.
"What happened to him!?"
Finally
Mikasa forced the words out.
"He…
sacrificed himself for me."
Eren's mind went blank.
Carla's eyes widened in disbelief.
Sacrificed…
"…He was just a child…"
Carla covered her mouth
a sob escaping.
Eren grabbed Mikasa's shoulders again.
"He can't be dead!
You were with him!
How could something happen so easily!?"
Mikasa couldn't answer.
Her body shook, her gaze dropped, hiding all her emotions.
Armin tugged Eren's arm gently.
"Eren, calm down.
Something terrible must have happened.
And Mikasa is clearly traumatized."
Eren shoved Armin's hand away and punched the wooden railing again and again.
He was furious.
Furious at the world.
At himself.
At his helplessness.
Someone saved his mother.
Saved Mikasa.
Saved him.
And that person
a good person
died for it.
"This world…
is just too cruel."
BOOM!!!
A distant cannon blast cut through the air, silencing the deck.
A soldier on the riverbank shouted:
"Titans are closing in!"
At once, the thousands of civilians waiting to board the boats panicked.
"Let me on first!"
"Titans are coming! Move!!"
"Get out of my way!!"
"We're going to die! Move move move!!"
"Help!!"
People surged toward the boats like a flood, shoving desperately.
Some slipped and fell into the river.
Some were trampled.
No one stopped to help.
Fear had devoured their humanity.
These survivors had just escaped death by inches
they knew the horror of Titans more than anyone.
But the soldiers on the boat… didn't care.
Two guards immediately pulled up the boarding ramp
isolating the frantic crowd.
Their lives mattered more than the "commoners" screaming below.
And the worst part
The civilians on the boat turned their heads away coldly.
No sympathy.
No protest.
Just silence.
Human nature
in this moment
was uglier than any Titan.